The E-Sylum: Volume 6, Number 26, June 29, 2003, Article 7
ALIEN LAWS
John Kleeberg writes: "I've been following the thread about
the internship of the German aliens during the Second World
War. Karen Ebel said that aliens have no constitutional rights.
That is untrue. Aliens, as a "discrete and insular minority,"
have had their constitutional rights enforced robustly by the
courts. Some of the postings in this thread have further
muddied the matter, implying that the position of the German
and Italian aliens was identical to that of the Japanese-Americans.
It was not. The German and Italians who were interned were
citizens of those countries. Yes, some of their American spouses
and children joined them, but that was voluntary. The Otto
Franke episode on the website you posted makes it clear:
eventually the FBI realized that Otto Franke was not an alien
and could not be interned. The Japanese-Americans were US
citizens who were interned because of their race; see Korematsu.
It is because of this racially-based internment that Congress
passed a law compensating the internees."